Thursday, May 16, 2013

Not From The Onion: Venezuela Minister Blames Toilet Paper Shortage on Media

First milk, butter, coffee and cornmeal ran short. Now Venezuela is running out of the most basic of necessities – toilet paper....

President Nicolás Maduro, who was selected by the dying Hugo Chávez to carry on his "Bolivarian revolution", claims that anti-government forces, including the private sector, are causing the shortages in an effort to destabilise the country.The government this week announced it also would import 760,000 tonnes of food in addition to the 50m rolls of toilet paper.Commerce minister Alejandro Fleming blamed the shortage of toilet tissue on "excessive demand" built up as a result of "a media campaign that has been generated to disrupt the country".

I hate it when the media uses its powers to generate an excessive demand for toilet paper. Good luck Venezuela.